End of the TrailOgallala, NE
I was quite excited when I found Ogallala was on our trail eastwards. Ogallala, NE was the end of the cattle trail, where the herd was loaded onto trains to ship east, and the cowboys were paid their wages and let loose on the town to find everything they had been missing on their long trek north (probably just a haircut and a bath, right?). In the cowboy movies it is their Promised Land, always talking about what they're a gonna do when they get to Ogallala. I guess it was their Vegas.
Boot Hill is filled with victims of knife fights, gun fights and run-ins with the sherrif. Truly the end of the trail for them.
This part of Nebraska looks like Hobbiton - all lumpy hillocks and green grass, instead of endless seas of corn fields.
Sunflowers and sand at Lake McConauhy, NE
Boot Hill, the End of the Trail
There is a good local history museum at Front Street - the recreation of how main street used to look. There is also a restaurant & saloon show in the evenings, if you are looking for a little more cheese with your cowboys.
https://www.ogallalafrontstreet.com/museum.html
Free museum with donation box
I always enjoy a good shudder at the medical displays. I wonder what desiccated pig ovaries cured.
Tiny frontier first aid kit, about the size of a wallet, with delicate glass test tubes filled with useful things like strychnine. "highly toxic ...While it has no known medicinal effects, in the past the convulsant effect was believed to be beneficial in small doses"-wikipedia. Scrumptious!
Doctors bag? Or trail first aid kit? Ingenious folding 3 panel test tube rack, with handy hanging hook. Complete with strychnine. For when you absolutely need to poison a well.
Across the street from Front Street is The Petrified Wood Gallery. Initially the collection was from the Kenfield brothers, who made intricate music boxes and models from petrified wood.
The collection is now an enjoyably eclectic mishmash of art, native artifacts, gems, fossils and interesting rocks. I think if anyone local had something old, weird or unique to donate, it has ended up here. Cool place to wander and wonder.
https://ilovelakemac.com/attractions/petrified-wood-gallery/
Free with donation box
Each shingle and roof tile is carved from a tiny piece of petrified wood.
Fossilized pine cones. Loved the intricate overlapping pattern inside
Antler carving
antler carving detail - WOW!
